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Friday, 4 May 2012

Around the garden

I love having pots of flowers on the patio throughout the summer. So with the risk of frost now over (hopefully) I visited the local garden centre yesterday and purchased a variety of colourful young plants with plans to fill the pots over the weekend. The evening weather forecast however brought unwelcome news. The coming weekend could see unseasonal falls of snow in the north. My heart sank. These little beauties will have to live indoors for the next few days until the worst is over.

Today is warm and sunny with no hint of the cold blast to come so I took a stroll around the garden with my camera.

My son and his wife gave me these gorgeous daisies as a Mother's Day gift. I transplanted them into a large pot and they have bloomed their hearts out ever since. They start small and grow 'fat and fluffy' as they mature.

If you have visited my blog during May in previous years you will have seen my pics of our rhododendrons and azaleas. Here in the English Lake District they grow like weeds and the garden is currently ablaze with colour.

This pale pink beauty hangs over the wall beside the kitchen.

Vibrant magenta lights up the driveway.

Scarlet blooms spill onto the lawn

The edges of our garden are left to grow wild and mingle with the woodland that surrounds our property and the whole place echoes with bird-song.

Fresh new buds open and reach for the sky whilst wild flowers like these delicate white wood anemones bask in the warm sunshine.

I always keep a watchful eye on this young horse chestnut tree (below). It started life as a shiny brown conker as of course all horse chestnut trees do. The conker is the special ingredient as it is one that I picked up from the garden of my all time favourite gardening guru, Rosemary Verey. I planted the conker in her memory hoping that it would become a mature tree one day and so far it is obliging.

For many years I had wanted to visit Rosemary's famous garden in the English Cotswolds but she passed away in 2001 before I'd made the trip. Then in 2002 I discovered that her garden was welcoming visitors for just a few days before closing for the last time.

On a sunny day in early October 2002, hubby and I travelled to the much loved garden that we had admired from a distance for many years. Since her death it had been maintained by loyal gardeners and was full of late summer blooms and berries and of course, conkers.

If I could choose the perfect house in which to live it would have to be Rosemary Verey's 300 year old rectory (above) which is built from honey-coloured Cotswold limestone.

Her laburnum walk became world famous so you might be familiar with this picture.

The old rectory has now become a country house hotel and the owners open the garden to the public at specified times. Rosemary's spirit lives on but for me some of the magic has gone and I'm pleased I saw the garden just as she had left it.

But back to reality . . . when not working in my own rambling patch I've been spending time making small items to sell at a local village fair. It will be held in June in aid of the village church that has a leaking roof in need of urgent repair. Here in England our ancient churches require constant money raising events to fund repairs to roofs, windows, bells and organs etc.

Kate and Lucy have been assisting me and looking after these pencil dolls that I knitted last week. They are quick to make, only take small amounts of yarn and hopefully will appeal to young customers who don't like to return home empty handed. They should raise a few extra pence for the church roof repairs.

I used the pattern that I featured on my blog last year. If you'd like to create a fun pencil doll or two then you will find the pattern here - FREE Pencil Doll Pattern